Rebel Labour MP Dr Gaurav Sharma has released caucus messages which he believes are evidence ministers are dodging official information rules.
The Prime Minister says the backbencher is continuing to misrepresent facts. It comes on the eve of the Labour caucus deciding Dr Sharma's fate.
There was a Prime Ministerial eyeroll at the start of the eleventh day of Labour's saga with Dr Sharma.
"If I was the Ombudsman and I heard a meeting characterised in the way that it was - inaccurately - by Gaurav I would have probably written that letter too," Jacinda Ardern said.
She was responding to the letter the Ombudsman sent her office on Friday asking for assurances she and her ministers understand their obligations.
It came after Dr Sharma alleged he and fellow MPs were coached to get around the Official Information Act - the OIA.
"How to talk to somebody without having a track record of it so nobody could track it down the road," he said.
Dr Sharma's provided Newshub with the agenda from those Monday, August 8 meetings.
It started with light refreshments and a korero and Q + A with the PM. At 6pm, there was a dinner break, then politics and social media sessions, finishing with a half-hour panel titled navigating LLO - that's the Labour Leader's Office - and ministerial offices.
"A constituent's personal information was released in an OIA and concern about that," Ardern said. "You can imagine in responding to that we would talk about where the law takes effect and where it does not - this is information that MPs need to know."
Dr Sharma has also shared a screenshot from Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan - then junior whip - to the Labour caucus reminding MPs to check before sending correspondence as "things unfolding through OIA process less than desirable" (sic).
But Ardern said on Monday there's "nothing inappropriate with reminding MPs around what is the most appropriate way to deal with a minister who has decision-making rights".
Ardern was once again saying Dr Sharma has no smoking gun.
